What is living in Zimbabwe like?

What is living in Zimbabwe like? We can’t talk about how it feels like living in Zimbabwe without talking about food. I will start off by sharing one of Zimbabwean’s favourite dishes.

Zimbabweans have a Shona proverb that says “ukama igasva hunozadziswa nekudya.” Meaning, sharing and eating together is essential for cementing relationships. We cement our relationships with food through sharing and eating together.

My favourite Zimbabwean dish is eating sadza served with beef mixed with rape. Rape is one of the most common vegetables, or leafy greens in Zimbabwe. Sadza is the staple diet, and it’s usually served with a variety of relishes. It can be vegetables or meat. Sometimes it’s served with a combination of meat and vegetables.

Sadza is a thickened maize porridge which you can serve with stews (beef, chicken, goat), fried vegetables, and salads, depending on the recipe you are using. What I love about this dish is that it fills you up such that you won’t have cravings for snacking now and then.

Staple food is a significant part of a community’s standard diet. The beauty of cooking sadza is that it is affordable. Most people use homegrown ingredients that are easily available straight from the garden. These are fresh ingredients that are bursting with flavours. The maize mealie meal is also homegrown.

To cook sadza, you need maize mealie meal, cooking oil, salt, tomatoes, onion, beef stew, rape leafy greens and water. Zimbabweans prefer white maize mealie meal. For seasoning, I always love to add Royco Usavi Mix Beef Flavour, black pepper and garlic.

To give that herby taste, you can add Aromat Seasoning. It’s incredibly versatile as you can use it just like salt and pepper, either whilst cooking or at the table as a condiment. Most people like to keep it simple. “Simple ingredients prepared in a simple way – that’s the best way to take your everyday cooking to a higher level.” – Jose Andres

Want to know what living in Zimbabwe Feels Like? let’s cook sadza

Sadza is a traditional Zimbabwean dish made from white maize meal (cornmeal). It is a thick porridge that is a staple in most Zimbabwean households, often served with meat, vegetables, or relish. To cook sadza, you start with gathering your ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white maize meal (cornmeal, preferably mealie-meal)
• 4 cups water (plus more as needed)

Instructions:

1. Preparing the Mixture

• In a medium pot, bring 3 cups of water to a boil.
• In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup of maize meal with 1 cup of cold water to form a smooth paste (this prevents lumps).

2. Cooking the Sadza

• Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to medium and slowly pour in the maize meal mixture while stirring continuously with a wooden spoon.
• Allow it to simmer for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

3. Adding More Maize Meal

• Gradually add the remaining 1 cup of maize meal while stirring vigorously to avoid lumps.
• Continue stirring as the mixture thickens. If it becomes too stiff, add a little hot water (about ¼ cup at a time) to adjust the consistency.

4. Final Cooking

• Reduce the heat to low and cover the pot. Let it cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sadza is smooth and thick.
• The sadza should pull away from the sides of the pot when ready.

5. Serving

• Wet a serving plate or bowl with a little water (to prevent sticking) and scoop the sadza onto it.
• Mould it into a round shape using a wooden spoon or wet hands.
• Serve hot with meat stew (nyama), vegetables (muriwo), or sour milk (mukaka wakakora).

Tips:

• Stir continuously to avoid lumps.
• For a softer sadza, add more water; for a firmer texture, cook longer.
• Traditionally, sadza is eaten with hands—scoop a small portion, roll it into a ball, and dip it into the relish.

Enjoy your authentic Zimbabwean sadza! 🍛🇿🇼

Relish, which comes in varieties, often accompanies sadza. It can be vegetables and meat that you have to cook separately. Alternatively, you can cook sadza and serve it with kidney beans.

The traditional way of eating sadza is with your hands using the right hand. And often would roll sadza into a ball before dipping it into condiments such as sour milk or stewed vegetables. Nowadays, you can use forks and knives, but I prefer using my hands.

Traditionally, people used to eat sadza from a communal bowl, something that has phased with time. Nothing remains static, even recipes for cooking sadza get adapted here and there. There are so many recipes for cooking sadza these days that you can find on YouTube.

Muboora is another traditional vegetable popular with the Zimbabwean people, which you can cook and eat with sadza. Muboora is pumpkin leaves that come with a lot of health benefits. It depends on what ingredients you have and what sounds healthy for you.

If you are allergic to peanut butter, you can substitute it for cooking oil. There are lots of old recipes to craft delicious meals from pumpkin leaves.

To recap, the major foods eaten by the majority in Zimbabwe are corn and meats such as goat, beef, and mutton. The main dish which is served at every meal is sadza. Sadza is a very thick corn porridge. They grow vegetables in family gardens that are added to meats to make stew.

The importance of sharing a meal explained through the Shona proverb “Ukama Igasva”. Watch the video Here

Hopefully, this post, My Go-To Favourite Dish inspires you to grab your pots and start cooking sadza. Please don’t forget to invite others to come and dine with you. Also, share your sadza recipe. Ukama igasva hunozadziswa nekudya! Relationships are hardly complete unless you partake of a meal together.